Prof Moyo has a case to answer: Lawyers
Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Professor Jonathan Moyo

Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Professor Jonathan Moyo

Herald Reporter—
HIGHER and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo should stop blackmailing zanu-pf and answer to charges being levelled against him by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, legal experts and political analysts have said.

Experts said the tribal and factionalism cards being raised by Prof Moyo in a bid to extricate himself are incompetent defences in a court of law.Prof Moyo, together with his deputy Dr Godfrey Gandawa, are accused of siphoning $400 000 from the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (Zimdef).

The pair claims the money, most of which was siphoned through shelf companies and Dr Gandawa’s personal account, was channelled towards zanu-pf programmes.Information from ZACC indicates that no money reached the revolutionary zanu-pf party, as they claim.At one point, Dr Gandawa bought personal furniture from the proceeds, while Prof Moyo confirmed buying bicycles for his cronies in his Tsholotsho North constituency.

Legal expert Mr Tendai Toto said the law did not recognise tribalism and factionalism.

“In answering to the allegations of corruption, it is incompetent and superfluous to raise issues of tribalism, nepotism, factionalism and blackmail as competent defences to the criminal charges levelled against a suspect accused person,” he said.“The law does not recognise tribalism, nepotism, political party factional fights and/or blackmail as valid legal defences to a corruption charge. It is contemptuous to raise and plead these as defences in a court of law.”

He said zanu-pf was a voluntary societal organisation with own Constitution, rules and regulations, which had nothing to do with the administration of criminal justice in Zimbabwe.Said Mr Toto: “Blackmailing of an organisation in which you are a member by free will and volition is neither a valid and competent defence to a criminal charge nor a mitigatory factor in the event that an accused person gets convicted of criminal offence.

“Rather, the blackmail suggests that an accused has a story to tell about some characters that he views have committed similar offenses as his but have gone unpunished. The police is available and willing to record a statement from he who alleges the commission of an offense(s) by others and will act upon that statement by conducting an investigation.”

He went on: “It is both irresponsible and an act of cowardice to attempt to plead to the nation for clemency by alleging that as a suspect, I must be exonerated because Crispen and John committed the same offenses but have not been made to account. In the absence of a report and/or complaint filed with the police against John and Crispen, it is not competent to plead selective application of the law either.”

Mr Toto said it was a legal procedure for an accused person to report to the police even in the company of a lawyer of choice.Advocate Fadzayi Mahere weighed in saying Prof Moyo’s rants on his Twitter account showed a lot of incoherence and panic.

“It’s one thing to mismanage public funds, it’s quite another to publicly and shamelessly attempt to justify such abhorrent conduct,” she said.“And so, Prof Moyo accused anyone who chose to raise the issue of tribalism or factionalism. This is the same man who retorted to others once found in a similar position to ‘carry their own cross’ and not burden the system with protecting them when faced with allegations of corruption. That the expose is a result of factional fighting need not detain us. With respect, to the ordinary citizen, that’s not a defense. We paid taxes for manpower development.

It is not for a Minister to arrogate to himself the power to use those funds for something else. The Minister, faced with such charges is under an obligation to issue a statement accepting or denying these charges. If he has no satisfactory explanation for the alleged maladministration, we are entitled to be outraged and to demand that he return our hard-earned tax money. At a minimum, we deserve more than a few insolent tweets to make this go away.”

Political scientist Mr Maxwell Saungweme said Prof Moyo’s defense showed desperation.“If he diverted the funds, he is wrong and the correct thing to do is resign,” he said.“Trying to play a tribal card is absurd. Its cases like this that make Zimbabwe to be classified as a country with endemic corruption. Here is a minister, a professor for that matter, trying to shroud a suspected case of corruption and abuse of office through politicking. This is despicable and deplorable.”Another analyst Mr Simukai Tinhu said the evidence against Prof Moyo and Dr Gandawa was undisputed.

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